Young adults traveling to Rome with Archbishop Bernard Hebda and Auxiliary Bishop Andrew Cozzens will share their trip with others even as they experience it.

That’s the plan for a regular blog posting on The Catholic Spirit website as 25 men and women ages 21 to 35 accompany the bishops Jan. 9-18 for the bishops’ Jan. 13 visit with Pope Francis.

Formally called “ad limina apostolorum,” which means to the threshold of the apostles, the trip by the bishops is periodically required of all bishops around the world. They provide detailed reports on their dioceses to the Holy Father, and there is a great deal of give-and-take.

The bishops also will meet with officials in various offices in the Vatican, pray before the tombs of St. Peter and St. Paul and hold ad limina Masses at St. Peter’s Basilica and other major churches.

The young people will participate where they can, including the daily Masses, a papal audience with Pope Francis and dinner and other events with the bishops. There will be tours of basilicas and churches, the catacombs, the Pantheon, the Roman Forum, Coliseum and other sacred and historic sites.

Several of the young adults will write about and share photos of their experiences in six separate blogs through a link on the home page of TheCatholicSpirit.com. Set to be posted between Jan. 11 and Jan. 18, the blogs are expected to form the basis of a story in the Jan. 30 print edition of the newspaper about the ad limina visit as seen through the eyes of the young adults.

The bishops are the spiritual fathers of the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, and those on the trip are members of the family who will share their experiences with others in the family, said Vincenzo Randazzo, a member of All Saints in Minneapolis and an evangelization manager in the Office of Evangelization, who is leading the young adult trip.

Vincenzo Randazzo

Blogging, photos and stories in The Catholic Spirit are an important way to share experiences with the rest of the archdiocese, Randazzo said.

“I’m a big believer in the internet being the papyrus of our time,” he said. “If St. Paul was living now, and he wanted to write to a community, he would do a YouTube video, he would use email.”

The ad limina visit includes bishops and officials from all the dioceses in Region VIII, which encompasses Minnesota, North Dakota and South Dakota. Bishop-elect Donald DeGrood of Sioux Falls, S.D., a priest of the archdiocese, will be on the trip.

In addition to Archbishop Hebda, Bishop Cozzens and Randazzo, the archdiocesan contingent will include Father Charles Lachowitzer, vicar general and moderator of the curia, and as chaplain Father Tim Wratkowski, parochial vicar of St. Joseph in West St. Paul.

Twenty-one of the young people on the trip are from the archdiocese. Two are from the Diocese of New Ulm in Minnesota and two are from the Diocese of Bismarck in North Dakota.

Archdiocesan officials hope the young people will learn more about the Church, grow in their own faith, enjoy Rome and spend time with the bishops, Randazzo said. In addition to the letters from Rome in the form of the blog posts, they are encouraged to share their experiences when they return and bring more people into the Church, he said.

“Rome has a special place in our faith,” Randazzo said. “It is the center from which we convert the world.”